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tv   Martin Bashir  MSNBC  July 16, 2012 1:00pm-2:00pm PDT

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retroactively mean? >> inniwe won't be apologizing. mr. romney, he's mr. fix it for the economy. >> if you're a campaign contributor to barack obama, your business may stand to get billions of dollars. i think it stinks to high heaven. we're going to put out two years of tax returns. >> they say in politics, if you're responding, you're losing. st. louis' finest reminding us it is getting hot in here. we begin with mitt romney facing a barrage of questions and attacks over his time at bain capital. this afternoon, it was president obama hitting his republican rival as outsourcer in chief at the first town hall in the battleground of cincinnati, ohio.
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>> today, we found out there's a new study out by nonpartisan economists that says governor romney's economic plan would in fact create 800,000 jobs. there's only one problem. the jobs wouldn't be in america. they would not be in america. >> kind of testy. in case you missed it, romney's on the ropes, going into a second week now about the length in his tenure at bain capital. he says he left in 1999, but government documents say he stayed on until 2002. here's how ed gillespie tried to spin it sunday on "meet the press." >> he retired retroactively at this point because he ended up not going back to the firm. >> and if you don't know what retired retroactively means, don't worry. nobody else does either. for his part, romney still
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couldn't dodge the bain burden. even after five interviews on friday and even from his friends at fox where he tried the old look over there approach this morning. >> wouldn't it be interesting, mr. president, if you spent some time looking at your record? at what you've done over the last three and a half to four years. >> that before heading off to a high dollar fund-raiser in baton rouge with 40 participants paying 50 grand a pop to lunch with mr. romney. unfortunately for mitt, the president took the wind right out of those sails. >> you don't hear me complaining because i would be making the same argument. >> so, the president expects to talk about his record. what a concept. but one thing we don't do is apologize as romney has demanded for bringing up the bain question. >> first of all, you're not
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going to apologize. >> no, we won't be apologizing. understand what the issue is here. mr. romney claims that he's mr. fix it for the economy. because of the, of his business experience and so i think voters entirely legitimately want to know what was that business experience. >> yes,sy, mr. president. inquiring minds want to know. in new york, ron christie and here in washington, julian epstein. ron, what does it mean the retire retroactively? can you break that down for me and the rest of america? >> good afternoon. i think i can. what governor romney did is that he elected to go on a leave of absence to go return the olympics in february of 1999. something similar to what he had done when he went to run against is that right ted kennedy in a previous position. he decided since he was going to hopefully return to bain
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capital, he said i'm not going to return to my part time or full time status. instead, i'm going to retroactively elect to not come back. this is really a slight of hand the president and his campaign are running as if governor romney were show in charge of bain. "the boston globe" who wrote a book on governor romney said he left in february 1999, i think this is more of a political statement. >> the slight of hand is not obama's, but it is romney's because if you retire, you retire. you put the date out there. you cease to be paid, but when you retroactively retire, that means you extend beyond the date and you, you've got some gray area here. don't you understand why the rest of us find that a bit fudging of the facts? >> governor romney was the one shareholder as we know, but of course, he did not have any
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obligation obviously of running the company. that's a huge distinction. your name may not be on the filings as lone shareholder, but when you look at contemporaneous documents in that time, romney was not listed as one having any manageri managerial control. they were looking for the -- >> wow, i've got a fuelling you don't think there's political muck raking going on here. romney tried to start the week going after the president for alleged political payoff. >> but if you're a campaign tributer to barack obama, your business may stand to get billions of dollars of cash from the government. i think it's wrong. i think it stinks to high heaven. >> anything to this? rand of course, i know you want to weigh in on the other rons. brother ron christie's
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viewpoints about the slight of hand that may have been going on. >> sure, with respect to what ron said, the next thing we'll hear is governor romney retroactively vetoed the health care bill as we. with problem with what ron said is that it takes so long to say it and it's so unsbelable to the average voter. this story has had so much life for a couple of different reasons and there's so many threads to pull on as to what kind of insight this would give you. first of all, it's the ineffectiveness of the the campaign. the inability week after week for them to get ahead of this story and put this out. the fact he hasn't really been vetted as a candidate. secondly, it's this idea that even when he says he's in charge between 1999 and 2002, he's not really in charge, which is not most think of a president. i don't think that is going to really fly politically.
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third, this idea secrecy. his finances in the cayman islands and swiss bank accounts, people don't like the idea he won't release those tax returns. people really don't like the idea of what's behind that, which is the reason you invest in cayman islands and swiss bank accounts, you want to avoid tax liability. you are gaming the tax system. so the standard romney's father set of releasing ten years of tax returns, he doesn't want to abide because obviously, he and the campaign are worried about something. there is a tax avoidance issue here and fourth, this issue of priorities. the idea that he would invest so much when he was at bain capital and in his personal finances, invest so much abroad, tells you about the kind of priorities this guy would have as a president. and so with respect to your question about the crony
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capitali capitalism, this has been vetted by news reporters over and over. solyndra was a program started by the bush administration. bush campaign contributors -- bush campaign contributors were actually -- bush campaign contributors actually were supporting that. the bush political team tried to get the solyndra loan through. that's just a dog that won't hunt. >> respond to this -- >> that is false. look, this is how i'm going to respond to the retroactive issue. i think the president of the united states is really demeaning his office when he says that he's not going to apologize for his campaign and for the chairman of the democratic national committee to allege that governor romney may have broken the law. i think we can put this behind us. this is what we do. p if the obama campaign believes that governor romney is committed a crimes or broken the law, they should file paperwork
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with the s.e.c. and say we want to get to the bottom of this. if they don't believe that, that to me indicates this is nothing more than political posturing. these are very serious issues. >> wait a minute. how about the tax? if you're going to make a parallel between the paperwork, what about on the ore hand, mitt romney finally releasing the tax returns we have been arguing over. >> back to the governor of alabama. >> the fact of the matter is governor romney has fully complied with the laws as it relates to disclosure. there are others looking to get through his tax records to demonize him. again, this is a very serious matter. president obama has been very successful in shying away from 41 straight months where you had unemployment of 38%. he does not want to issue the necessary paperwork where he on
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one hand says governor romney has engaged in activity, but won't take the step necessary to back that up. >> there's a couple of responses to that. >> we're at the end of time. i wish we could carry this forward. we would like to continue this. stay with us. coming up, a new ad from the president. is it a sour note or instant classic? ♪ oh beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain ♪ the medicare debate continues in washington... ...more talk on social security... ...but washington isn't talking to the american people. [ female announcer ] when it comes to the future of medicare and social security, you've earned the right to know. ♪ ...so what does it mean for you and your family? [ female announcer ] you've earned the facts.
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♪ america america god shed his grace on thee ♪ right now, a big part of the problem for mitt romney are obama attack ads focused on bain capital. when mr. romney told the president he should apologize for the ads, the obama campaign doubled down hitting mitt romney for outsourcing and setting his own tone of "america the beautiful" it didn't take long for the romney campaign to respond in kind. let's welcome back ron christie and julian epstein. you and ron are both political strategists. you understand how this works and your expertise, but for the president's team, what message
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are they sending to the other side by continuing to pummel mitt romney in the fashion they're doing? >> one message is that mitt romney should have invested in singing lessons rather than offshoring and jobs. >> or out sourced his singing. >> you remember going back to the 2000, 2004 campaign. gore and kerry both had problems because they weren't really comfortable with voters. when you compare the swooners if you will, the romney singing and obama singing and ask yourself who is a guy i'd rather have a beer with, most would say obama rather than romney. more importantly, what they're saying is look on this offshoring, there is more there to the story. if you look at otis media, gs
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technologies, there's lot of cases in which romney when he was head of bain capital, was investing in companies that were either offshoring jobs or closing down. i think what obama is saying is take away that 1999 to 2002, there's still plenty of stuff to work with. >> here's the ad that the romney folks came with up in response to the one that shows their candidate singing. let's take a listen. ♪ i so in love with you >> so, ron, we've got duelling ads with singing candidates. i want you and julian to face off with some bars of your own. who knows, maybe singing ability will be a key factor for some voters, but for conservatives, is this the kind of response they've been hoping for? >> i think my friend and i can make a bipartisan commitment
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that you will not hear the to of us singing on air. but in all seriousness, i think this administration has pledged they're going to be the most transparent in history and you've seen lobbyists getting waivers. the president said he wasn't going to do. i think governor romney has been attacked by some of those on the right in that he hasn't been forceful enough in coming back after the president, and the romney camp has some ads in the tank that they're ready and able to come hit back at the president and knock this down. the important thing here is a lot of people across the country are not so much interested in how much money governor romney has or doesn't sh but how is governor romney or obama going to lead this country. these attacks, i think are going to fail. >> they don't care. 20 seconds. >> they don't care if he's a successful business man.
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they like a fact he was a successful business man. they don't like the secrecy, the gaming of the tax system. it's about how he's gamed the system. >> who's the better singer? obama or mitt romney? >> is that even a question? >> i'm not touching that one. >> there you go. thank you very much. coming up, no rose garden strategy for the incumbent. president obama heads to cincinnati. >> it's a woman's turn. that young lady in the white, white t-shirt. >> he actually has a question. >> no, no, you can't do that now. >> i called, i called on the young lady and that's what's called a bait and switch. our current dividend tax rate will expire this year, sending taxes through the roof and hindering economic recovery.
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president obama took his campaign to the critical swing state of ohio today where he wasted no time continuing to hit mitt romney with blistering attacks on his plan for fixing the economy. take a look. >> by eliminating taxes on corporations foreign come, governor romney's plan would encourage companies to shift more operations to foreign tax havens, creating 800,000 jobs in those other countries. >> nbc's kristen welker joins us live from the white house. kristen, while the president is out on the stump, mitt romney is attending yet another secret fund-raiser. this one with bobby jindal in mississippi. is this the kind of optics the white house was hoping for? >> good afternoon to you, michael. i think the obama campaign is happy with the optics of the day, but the romney campaign also keenly aware of their optics. they launched a bit of a counteroffensive today in ohio. rob portman out talking to
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voters there. sort of bracketing the president's trip. while you had the president hammering mitt romney for his tax proposal, you have portman really slamming the president for the high unemployment rate and making the case that the president has run a lot of negative attack ads lately. so i think both campaigns are keenly aware of the optics. we have a little bit more than three months to go until election day, so i think both campaigns are going to be carefully calculating the optics. >> speaking of you know, how long it is until election day, the president hasn't been home much lately. what does the rest of his week look like after he leaves ohio? >> it's an incredibly busy week almost solely dedicating to campaigning. tomorrow, he'll be in texas, san antonio, then austin. he comes back to the white house for a brief break on wednesday and then thursday and friday,
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he's going to be in another huge battleground state. florida. i will be traveling with him, by the way. we'll hit a number of stops in florida. of course, a highly coveted state and this is such an interesting state. president obama won it in 2008. he's hoping to hold on to it again. but it's of course an incredibly tight race. if you look at the polls there, they show a dead heat. so very tight race in florida. the campaign has said all along as we get closer to november, you're going to see the president increase his amount of travel. the amount of traveling he's doing. we'll really seeing his campaign kick into high gear. he has gone from doing a couple of campaigns a week to dedicating his campaign. >> today, the president took some questions from the crowd. is this something we should expect to see more of in order to draw a sharp distinction
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between governor romney and president obama, who seems at ease doing so? >> president obama, if you talk to his campaign officials, they will say that he loves doing these types of events, so we can expect to see more of these events from president obama. it allows him to talk more about his policy issues, as well as have a few lighter moment when today the young girl asked him what kind of girl scout cookies he likes. if you talk to campaign official, they will say mitt romney did do a town hall event last week. he has another this week in ohio and i bet you will expect to see more of that from the romney campaign as well as we get closer to election day. >> one more question. do you think most of america knew what he meant when he responded by hey, i might let you give me a line. that's inside brother talk right there. >> i bet about half of americans knew what he was talking about. that was another great moment when someone asked if he could
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cut his air. it really alloweded the president to show a little bit of his personality and his dedication to his barber. >> since i got a line today from my barber, me and obama are on the same panl. thank you so very much. stay with us. today's top lines are coming up. >> released the tax returns tomorrow, you've got to release six, eight years of back tax returns. i don't spend money on gasoline. i don't have to use gas. i am probably going to the gas station about once a month. drive around town all the time doing errands and never ever have to fill up gas in the city. i very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. last time i was at a gas station was about...i would say... two months ago. the last time i went to the gas station must have been about three months ago. i go to the gas station such a small amount that i forget how to put gas in my car. ♪
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starts with arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news. they say sunshine is the best disinfectant. well, bain, bain, go away. here are today's top lines. no apologies. >> a lot's been said about me over the last three and a half years. >> the president's campaign has been outrageous in making the charges they have. >> you don't hear me complaining. you're the chairman, ceo and president of a company.
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>> in february of 1999, i left bain capital. >> he is the chief executive officer during this period of time, right? >> legally, yes. >> stop whining. if you want to claim bain as your calling card -- >> you're the president's ceo, chairman of the board and 100% owner of a company, in what world are you living in that you're not in charge. >> took a leave of absence and left a life he loved to help a country that he loves more. >> why is mitt romney running away from his company like a scolded cat? >> we won't be apologizing. >> we're going to put out two years of tax returns. >> release the tax returns tomorrow. it's crazy. you've got to release six, eight, ten years. take the hit. >> john kerry ran for president. his wife who has hundreds of millions of dollars, never released her tax return. >> just get everything out in
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the open. >> they want more information, they can try and get it. i've put out as much we're going to put out. >> i do not know why given mr. romney knew he was going to run for president that he didn't get all of this out and tidy up his offshore accounts. >> if they want to talk about transparency. >> he must have calculated that are higher costs. >> anytime you've got snoop dogg in a republican ad, it's really tough. karen finney, john harwood and political writer for the "new york times," dr. james peterson. good day to you all. let's start with the marvin gaye subsection here. let's talk presidents and tax returns. almost every major party candidate including his dad releases multiple tax returns.
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george and bill christol said as much. >> there's something he doesn't want to us see. i don't think it's anything criminal. it's more of the same. more offshoring, offshore investments and also i think it will be revealed he does let us see access for the previous several year, you'll see some of his investments were with institutions contributing to the downfall of our country. things like fannie mae and freddie mac, schemes we've seen in these sort of high-end financial institutions. you'll see bain and romney was probably involved in some of those things. illegal, but things that would be damaging to him. >> certainly. so john, any armchair campaign manager knows you have to release the tax returns, so why is the romney campaign stumbling
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on something so simple and obvious? >> his finances are not simple. they're complex. i believe that he is correct that thai calculated that it would be more embarrassing for them to have stuff out there for the obama campaign to pick through. the question is, can they sustain that position? i talked yesterday to two officials, we're not taking the bait, not giving anymore than we said. another one said to my knowledge, we're staying the course. i talked to a senior democrat, veteran of many presidential campaigns yesterday, he said look guys, this is not a disaster, it's a distraction they don't need in a close race. ooel either have to come out with more tax returns, which might outline more potentially
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embarrassing transactions. >> i guess they're switching and waiting. you heard it a bit in top lines, but i want to play mitt romney's defense for not releasing more tax returns. >> john mccain ran for president and released two years of tax returns. john kerry ran for president. you know, his wife who has hundreds of millions of dollars, has never released her tax returns. >> the she did it, too, do you really want to bring wives in? >> if you're hiding behind a former candidate's wife? >> that's two skirts. >> and you are really back on your heels. i think they've made the political calculation that what's in there and the story that tells us is a bigger hit. i think they're wrong and why they didn't have a better answer is what's hurting them. the time frame we're talking
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about, this is the time frame, this is post enron. this is tyco. this is when we saw ceos run amuck and we saw even greater accountability and sort of companies like bain and mitt romney would have more likely been less likely and just sign a document than ever before. the argument doesn't hold up and it's going damage his credibility. >> a lot of damage has been done already. james peterson, let me play sound from the senate floor this morning. both the democrat and gop leader talking about this issue. >> we can only guess what new secrets would be revealed if you could examine a dozen years of his tax returns. >> president's campaign wants to know if opponent is hiding
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something on a 10-year-old tax return. >> is it possible that romney's 2011 tax return could complicate that math for republicans? >> absolutely. again, for people to suggest this is not important to the american voting republic -- lost their bid for presidency, so hopefully he's not trying to follow in those footsteps, but like luke russert said on twitter campaign, this is an opportunity for the romney campaign to actually concede the tax -- actually abuse our system and deplete the system's resources in ways that are unfortunate for the country. >> instead of being courageous, romney's deflections are going to make this a worse situation. >> do you think they will help him or continue to do damage?
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he looks like he's being dishonest about something. >> it does and you can't just keep saying no, trust me. here's the other thing. how many homeowners who have lost their homes found themselves very much accountable for those loan documents they signed? this idea that well, i signed those documents, my name's on them, but i'm not accountable, this sort of con stanlt drip out of new information that conflicts what he's been saying. that's what's killing him right now. >> i think we need to be honest about one thing, which is that the obama campaign's sole interest in additional tax returns is to have more information to attack mitt romney with and democrats have been losing the policy argument on taxes. they weren't able to extend the top in or let the top end tax cuts expire, preserve the middle class. they believe this issue is a tool to help them win that policy fight and the election. if this is a contact sport, you can't holler ouch when you get
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hit. >> mitt romney probably skirted the laws or legally the laws that 1% uses. on the face of it, that might be what we sue. >> we got to wrap it up. karen finney, john harwood and james peterson, thank you so much. coming up on "hardball," chris matthew on why bain matters. plus, dirty, angry money. next, are some republican doe nars already banking on a mitt romney loss? stay with us. >> but if you're a campaign contributor to barack obama, your business may stand to make, get billions of dollars or hundreds of millions of cash from the government. i think it's wrong. i think it stinks to high heaven. ♪ hello...rings ♪ what the... what the... what the... ♪ are you seein' this? ♪ ♪ uh-huh... uh-huh... uh-huh... ♪ ♪ it kinda makes me miss the days when we ♪ ♪ used to rock the microphone ♪ back when our credit score couldn't get us a micro-loan ♪ ♪ so light it up! ♪ even better than we did before ♪ ♪ yeah prep yourself america we're back for more ♪
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there it is ! there it is ! where ? where ? it's getting away ! where is it ? it's gone. we'll find it. any day can be an adventure. that's why we got a subaru. love wherever the road takes you. wow, there it is. as republican governors in states like florida scramble to figure out why president obama
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is leading in the polls, the romney campaign is trying to explain everything from his refusal to release his tax returns to retroactive retirement. meanwhile, john boehner announced he's raised $80 million to help re-elect republicans in congress. and that got us wondering, are republicans quietly preparing for mitt romney to lose in november? joe courtney is a democrat from connecticut. welcome to the show. >> thanks. glad to be here. >> we know congress isn't going to do much in the way of legislating between now and november, so what is your take on raising $80 million for the party. seems a little narcissistic, doesn't it? >> it certainly clears up the mystery of what's been going on all those days the house was not in session. if we had the same energy of the to do list that sits before the house, postal reform, violence
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against women, budget bill, the list goes on an on and we have barely had a house that's in session and when we are, we have these pointless debates on repealing health care. again, he obviously has been busy raising those kinds, those sums of money, but i do think it's r important for people to recognize that is going to be their firewall, they hope. if the race for the white house doesn't go their way and it's why again people need to stay focused on the fact that we really do have an opportunity to win the house this year and that number in that presentation press release that the speaker came out with shows there's nervousness. >> no question about that and it shows where the priorities are in passing all that great legislation, but about raising more dough. let me play part of what john powell said on "meet the press" on sunday. >> republicans first of all will gain control of the the is that
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the. that means that both the house and senate will reject these kinds of tax increases that the president's proposing. >> given your analysis, have you heard anything on the hill that might lead you to believe that republicans are worried about romney's chances and therefore focus on getting members of congress elected instead? >> absolutely. this is sort of back chatter in terms of the super pac priorities out there. i mean, we saw frankly happened the first post citizen united election and house races where democrats who work very hard and look pretty strong going into the election were basically a bus in terms of money that flowed into a lot of bases. person in democratic caucus, heading up the d triple c are really warning people that you've got to be ready for the
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fact that these forces are going to be out there and as you point out, if they feel that a white house is a lost cause, they are going to stampede into house and senate races. again, i think senator kyl is engaged in wishful thinking. i think again the house is where we have an opportunity to unlock the gridlock in washington now and to try some movement on issues that are really just crying out for action and the boehner legacy, you know, creating probably the most -- congress has been about blocking issues that are almost just baseline issues. this is about just sort of keeping a recovery on track and making sure that middle class families are going to have a fighting chance. >> thank you so much. appreciate you. coming up, with so much bad news on bain, will mitt romney try to steal a positive headline
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with a vp pick? but first, amanda drury has the cnbc market wrap. >> yes, let's take a look at how stocks stood today and going into tomorrow, we had another down day for listings. the s&p, off by just over three and the nasdaq up by 11 points. this is the seventh monday that we have been down. that is it from cnbc, we're first in business worldwide. the wife. hey, babe. got the jetta. i wiped the floor with the guy! not really. i would've been fine with 0% for 36 months, but i demanded 60. no...i didn't do that. it was like taking candy from a baby. you're a grown man. alright, see you at home. [ male announcer ] the volkswagen autobahn for all event. we good? we're good. [ male announcer ] at 0% apr for 60 months, no one needs to know how easy it was to get your new volkswagen. that's the power of german engineering.
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40 days to go until the republican convention in tampa and still no word from mitt romney about his choice for running mate. now, friends of mr. romney are telling t"the new york times" he's made up his mind and the announcement could come this week. just hours ago, the romney campaign said however this is not the case and the choice remains a closely guarded secret. so let's get the latest from
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politico's chief investigative reporter, keb ken vogel. welcome to the show, ken. >> great to be with you, professor. >> the rough patch romney's campaign has been going through, he might pick a running mate that will shake up the race. is a game changer what mitt romney needs now? >> i think the possibility of a game changer is what he needs now. in other words, he benefits him to speculate about who the pick might be as they continue to have these stories about will he make a decision this week? is it imminent? who could it be? when it makes the pick, sure, he'll get a bounce out of it, but won't have this sort of slow drip they can divert attention to anytime they reach a rough patch of bad stories on either bain capital, his time there,
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his tax returns are something he doesn't want to talk about. this veepstakes is nice to be able to divert attention to. >> but the article in "the new york times" this morning spends a lot of time on the prospects of tim pawlenty. what are your sources telling you? we've heard conservative lees rice for instance. >> he would be a safe pick. he's done a lot for mitt romney. remember, pawlenty bowed out of the race after a poor finish in that straw poll in iowa and you know, it appeared at a time when his prospects, potential to win the nomination might be slim. later, it turned out as the field became chaotic, maybe he would be a better chance, but he stuck behind romney and continued to sing his praise. he would bring to the ticket a
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little working class, an area in which mitt romney struggled to connect. that is appearing as if he can identify with regular working class folks. tim plint pawlenty can. until he ran in, for the nomination at this time. he had a multi. a hockey league in minnesota. you could see him bringing that type of appeal mitt romney might like. on the other hand, there's a gender gap where he's not doing well with women, so an obvious appeal to having a woman on the ticket. it also benefits him to wait because he can see really where he needs the help. whether it's geographically in terms of ethnic or racial diversity in terms of having a woman on the ticket, so the longer he can hold this out, the more attention he gets and who he's going to pick and the speculation and then also the clearer his needs become. >> when it comes to the veepstakes, of course, mr.
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pawlenty is an evangelical christian would bring something of value to the ticket in terms of his religious background because the republicans may still have a bit of a problem with mr. romney's religion. would putting pawlenty on the ticket be a solution to some of these evangelical anxieties? >> yeah, i think it could go a long way towards allaying some of those concerns that some in the republican base evangelicals, sort of social conservatives, still have. it's not just all in the republican base. it's among voters across the board. so that is a potential weakness for him and one that a vice presidential pick could potentially off set slightly, but in all these cases, you look the different criteria and it still comes back to the nominees, the presidential nominee.
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it's fun to speculate on, but mitt romney is the republican presidential candidate no matter who he picks. and these stories we're talking about that the vice presidential, the veepstakes is sort of a diverse from, his involvement at bain, those are going to continue to matter who the vice presidential pick. >> who's your favorite? who's the pick? >> i think portman and pawlenty are the obvious choices, but i don't think you can rule out bobby jindal or condoleezza rice just yet. >> thanks for joining us today. >> pleasure. >> we'll be right back to clear the air. [ female announcer ] the next generation of investing technology is now within your grasp with the e-trade 360 investing dashboard. e-trade 360 is the world's first investing homepage that shows you where all your investments are
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a city teeming with governmental gains and professionals who view politics as a sport, but it's also full of professional sports teams. our hockey team is pretty good, our basketball teams, well, pray for them. speaking of basketball, as i take leave of my hosting chair here in d.c., i'm heading over to the verizon center to catch the u.s. men's and women's basketball teams tune up for their olympic gold in london in a couple of weeks and yes, the first fan, president obama, will be there, too, because he's got a serious billion basketball jones and since he's the leader of the fwree world and since teams are preparing to represent us in the u.k., it makes sense for him to cheer them on. most of the men and women on the floor tonight will be black. but they won't be hooping for their home teams or race or gender. they'll be proudly representing the dwrits and most americans looking on won't think it's a problem at all.
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lebron james and britney greiner will have an advantage even the president has enjoyed that as a black man, he can also represent this country as our leerd. too many folks still think of president obama as the ultimate other. as a man whose values or face or race make him a stranger to american ideals and values. too many of this president's political opponents have stood in cowardly silence while he is unfairly portrayed. too many american citizens have fallen to president obama is not who he says he is. a decent man with a desire to serve this nation and instead, bathe in false truths and accusations motivated by ideology and race. let's learn a valuable lesson as we watch our noble warriors on the gridiron tonight. we know a brother can pass